JEWISH CHRISTIAN

BELIEFS AND PRACTICES

(By the Members of the Jewish Christian Webring)

This page is written and maintained by the members of the Jewish Christian Webring. Members of the JCW are Christians and Jews who acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah, and believe that certain Jewish religious practices should not be excluded from the worship of God. Each member has a unique practice of Jewish Christianity. Some are members of Messianic organizations that have guidelines for observance. The purpose for this Beliefs page is to encourage others to observe Jewish customs in a Christian way, by seeing what others do and perhaps letting that motivate them to add customs to their own observance.

Rosh Hashanah

Our family attends a shofar blowing ceremony at a local Messianic synagogue, and then goes to services where prayers and songs reaffirm the new covenant through Jesus.

Yom Kippur

I stay home from work and pray the standard Jewish prayers, plus I pray and reflect all day on my spiritual life and identity. I also fast (no eating or drinking).

Sukkot

Chanakah

In my town there is a giant Chabad menorah, and hundreds maybe thousands of people come out to participate in the night lighting (including myself). Plus there is music and activity. At home we also light a menorah.

Christmas

Purim

Our family reads the Book of Ester together as is the Jewish tradition.

Lent (in general)

Ash Wednesday

Palm Sunday

Passover

My family has taken the Passover Haggadah and modified it to have Christian content. We follow all of the ceremony that one finds in the Jewish ceremony. We try to make it the best meal of the year with the best lamb and wine. With all of the reading and eating and drinking, the whole Passover lasts about 3 hours, maybe 4. Also, either the night before or the night after we watch "The Ten Commandments" on tape (now DVD).

Counting the Omer

Holy Thursday

As the church I attend doesn't believe in frequent Communion, I try to always attend the Catholic mass for Holy Thursday because it represents the Last Supper. They also have a foot washing to remember how Jesus washed the feet of the apostles that night.

Good Friday

Easter

Shavout

The Three Weeks (in general)

The 17th of Tammuz

This is a fast day (sunrise to sundown) for Jews. Although the Christian perspective might be to think fasting unnecessary because Jesus has paid all ransoms, I still fast to maintain a spiritual fellowship with the Jewish people. This may sound silly, but when I first started observing this, I came home early due to thirst and was the first to discover a fire in my condo association's trash bin. If I had been five minutes later, or not there at all, an adjacent wooden structure would have caught fire, and that would have set off several buildings. I interpreted this incident to mean God favored my observance.

The 9th of Av

This is also a fast day, but 25 hours from sundown to sundown. For the same reason of spiritual fellowship I observe this fast day just like the 17th of Tammuz.